Michael Ring
Ceist:872 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Health and Children when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will be called for orthodontic assessment. [20001/03]
Written Answers. - Orthodontic Service.
Responsibility for the provision of orthodontic treatment to eligible persons in County Mayo rests with the Western Health Board. My Department has asked the chief executive officer to investigate the matter raised by the Deputy and to reply to him directly.
Michael Ring
Ceist:873 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Health and Children when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will be called for orthodontic treatment. [20002/03]
Responsibility for the provision of orthodontic treatment to eligible persons in County Mayo rests with the Western Health Board. My Department has asked the chief executive officer to investigate the matter raised by the Deputy and to reply to him directly.
Michael Ring
Ceist:874 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Health and Children if there was a category for urgent treatment when people were assessed by the orthodontist in the Western Health Board area, whereby a person was deemed to be in need of urgent treatment; if a list ever existed for such persons; if so, when it was discontinued; and if it is still in existence, the number of persons who are now on the urgent treatment list. [20003/03]
Michael Ring
Ceist:875 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Health and Children if the Western Health Board has changed the guidelines in relation to qualifying for orthodontic treatment. [20004/03]
Michael Ring
Ceist:887 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Health and Children the exact assessment waiting list and exact treatment waiting lists in categories A and B for orthodontics in the Western Health Board region. [20016/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 874, 875 and 887 together.
As the Deputy is aware, the provision of orthodontic treatment to eligible patients is the statutory responsibility of the health boards in the first instance.
Entitlement to orthodontic treatment is determined by reference to orthodontic guidelines, a set of objective clinical criteria applied by health board orthodontists when assessing children's priority of need for treatment. The orthodontic guidelines were issued by my Department in 1985 and are still in use. The orthodontic guidelines are used to ensure that orthodontic resources are prioritised for and applied equitably to the most severe cases. When a health board orthodontist decides that a child is in clinical need of orthodontic treatment in accordance with the criteria, he or she is then placed on a treatment waiting list. The guidelines are intended to enable health boards to identify in a consistent way those in greatest need and to commence timely treatment for them. The number of cases treated in the Western Health Board is dependent on the level of resources available in terms of qualified staff in the area and this is reflected in the treatment waiting list. In fact, the provision of orthodontic services is currently severely restricted due to the limited availability of trained specialist clinical staff to assess and treat patients. However, the chief executive officer of the Western Health Board has informed me that patients assessed as category A in the board's area are seen directly upon referral and are not put on a waiting list for treatment.
I have taken a number of measures to address this shortage. The grade of specialist in orthodontics has been created in the health board orthodontic service. This year my Department and the health boards are funding 13 dentists from various health boards, including two from the Western Health Board, for specialist in orthodontics qualifications at training programmes in Ireland and at two separate universities in the United Kingdom. These 13 trainees for the public orthodontic service are additional to the six dentists who commenced their training in 2001. Thus there is an aggregate of 19 public service dentists currently in training for specialist in orthodontics qualifications. Furthermore, two specialists who completed their training last year took up duty with the Western Health Board. These measures will complement the other structural changes being introduced into the orthodontic service, including the creation of an auxiliary grade of orthodontic therapist to work in the orthodontic area.
The chief executive officer of the Western Health Board has informed me that at the end of June 2003 there were 827 cases awaiting orthodontic assessment in the board's area. There were no category A cases awaiting treatment and there were 840 category B cases awaiting orthodontic treatment. The chief executive officer has further reported that the board's orthodontic service was providing orthodontic treatment to 1,614 patients at the end of June 2003. This means that there are twice as many children getting orthodontic treatment as there are children waiting to be treated.
Michael Ring
Ceist:876 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of persons from the schools in the Belmullet area of County Mayo who were brought to a Western Health Board orthodontic consultant for assessment; the number who were subsequently put on the treatment waiting list; and the number who were refused treatment. [20005/03]
Responsibility for the provision of orthodontic treatment to eligible persons in County Mayo rests with the Western Health Board. My Department does not routinely collect information of the nature requested by the Deputy and has, therefore, asked the chief executive officer to investigate the matter raised by the Deputy and to reply to him directly.